Nobility
by hikuni
Summary: Book 3. Sokka/Zuko. Set after The Boiling Rock Pt. 2, Sokka and Zuko explore the Western Air Temple, where Sokka tries to get Zuko to talk about girls, marriage, and maybe even a future for the two of them.


**Category: **Avatar: The Last Airbender

**Author:** Hikuni

**Title:** Nobility

**Pairing(s):** Sokka/Zuko

**Rating:** T

**A/N:** This is written for my friend, Rabby, who is the biggest Zukka fan there is. It's incredibly rough - I posted it pretty much upon completing it, so I'm sorry about that! I promise to take my time with my next Sokka/Zuko story! (Because yes, there will be a next one!)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any rights to Avatar: The Last Airbender or its characters. I gain no profit from writing or posting this work of fiction.

* * *

They really shouldn't be getting along so well.

At least, that's what Katara hisses at him every time she gets Sokka alone. "He's _Fire Nation_," she reminds him, her voice raising an octave like it does when she's upset. "Do I need to remind you what the Fire Nation did to us?"

She doesn't. Of course he remembers.

Katara wasn't the only one who lost a mother in a Fire Nation raid, after all. Katara wasn't the only one whose father left home to fight in the war against the Fire Nation. And Katara wasn't the only one who almost lost a friend – practically a brother – to a bolt of lightning from a firebender. Sokka had just as many reasons to hate the Fire Nation as Katara did, but he didn't. He just let it all go.

And letting it all go had been kind of easy, actually. Zuko _made_ it easy.

Sure, Sokka had had his qualms about letting the guy join Team Avatar. Zuko _was_ the crazy banished Prince who stalked them across the globe like a giant creeper, after all. But it wasn't very hard for him to see that Zuko had changed. It wasn't just the physical changes, either (although Sokka thought his new hairstyle's lack of stupid ponytail was a significant improvement). Something in the firebender was just… different.

* * *

"Man, I don't know what you see in her," Sokka says one day. He and Zuko are exploring the vast sanctuaries of the Western Air Temple together, Zuko leading the way and Sokka following behind, holding a map he's working on. Sokka kind of doubts that anyone will ever need a detailed schematic of the Western Air Temple, but you never know. Stranger things have happened. It'll definitely come in handy if Sokka ever meets another bat-shit crazy Knowledge Spirit. Seriously, Sokka still gets shivers whenever he hears an owl hoot. "She's doomy and gloomy and she speaks in a monotone. A _monotone_! How does that _not_ put you to sleep?"

Zuko laughs and cuts away a wall of vines with one of his twin dao blades. "She's pretty," he says with a shrug.

Sokka rolls his eyes and follows Zuko. "Okay, I'll give you that, Mai is pretty hot. But so is the bendy chick – you know, with the braid?"

"Ty Lee?"

"That's the one!" Sokka grins as he snaps his fingers. "She's pretty hot, too. Why not date Ty Lee instead?"

Zuko frowns – the room unveiled from the vines is a dead end. "Ty Lee's kind of annoying."

"Better bubbly than grumpy," Sokka says wisely as he marks the room on his map. "Besides, you're a prince, right? Can't you date whoever you want? You have the whole Fire Nation to choose from, and you choose _Mai_?"

Zuko laughs again, and Sokka grins at the sound of it. He can't help it – he really likes Zuko's laugh. He really, _really_ likes it. It's raspy and low and, well, _surprised_. Zuko always seems surprised to find himself laughing. "I can't just date _anyone_ from the Fire Nation. They have to be of _some_ nobility."

"Ah," Sokka nods sagely, following the firebender into yet another dead end. "I forgot, your nation is full of pompous assholes."

"Watch your mouth," Zuko growls, whipping around to point the sharp end of the dao blade at Sokka. For a moment, adrenaline flushes through Sokka's body – a natural instinct for a warrior, and a pretty useful one, too – but then he notices that the firebender's smiling. Sokka smiles too, and _okay_, maybe forgiving someone for pointing a sword at your throat just because they're smiling is _not_ such a great instinct for a warrior, but it's not just anyone smiling. It's _Zuko_ smiling.

They hit another dead end, so Zuko turns around. They've been hitting dead ends for hours, now, but Sokka can't seem to find a care. Nope. Not a one. Maybe they should be trying a little harder to get back to the group, and maybe Sokka should be taking the opportunity to hang out with his father, but instead Sokka points towards a corridor they haven't tried.

The Western Air Temple is nothing if not vast. Sokka and Zuko have been exploring it for three days now, and they still haven't seen all there is to see. Aang came along on one of their expeditions, and that had been kind of fun, but mostly kind of awkward. Zuko still didn't know what to say to the airbender now that he wasn't trying to capture the kid. It had been pretty painful to watch, actually, with Zuko all nervous and awkward and Aang trying too hard to make it seem like it was no big deal. Luckily, Aang figured out that if Sokka and Zuko were gone, then he'd have more alone time with Katara. Which was fine with Sokka – he actually liked the alone time with Zuko, too.

"So this whole nobility thing," Sokka says, breaking the easy silence the pair had fallen into as they hacked their way through overgrown hallways, "How _noble_ does one have to be before a member of the Royal Family can date them?"

Zuko shrugs and hacks at a massive tangle of vines hanging overhead. "I don't know. Pretty noble, I guess."

"Hey, I'm pretty noble," Sokka brags, sticking his thumb into the center of his chest. "Would I be eligible to date your Royal flamey-ness?"

Sokka expects Zuko to laugh, but instead Zuko just frowns. "Sokka," Zuko starts, slowly, as if speaking to a small child, "I didn't meant 'noble,' like principled; I meant, you know, _noble_. Aristocratic."

Sokka balks and makes squawking noises completely unbecoming of a Water Tribe warrior. "I – you – I know that! I meant that I'm the son of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe!"

"Oh," Zuko replies with his eyebrows raised – well, one eyebrow, anyway. "Oh, well, good."

Sokka crosses his arm across his chest indignantly. "Jerk!"

Zuko doesn't blink an eyelash at the insult – instead he grins at the challenge. "Idiot."

"Jackalope-ass!"

"Moron."

"Stupid fucking firebender!"

"Stupid fucking Water Tribe peasant."

"Hey!" Sokka holds his hands out in front of his chest, shaking his head. "I thought we just went over that. I am _not_ a stupid fucking Water Tribe peasant. I'm a stupid fucking Water Tribe _noble_."

A grin breaks out on the firebender's face and damn, if that isn't still a surprise to see. Up until Zuko came to them at the Air Temple, Sokka'd only seen the guy grimacing or snarling or generally looking like someone just shoved a foot up his ass. But now here he was – still scarred and still angry, but every now and then a little light shone through, and Sokka could see a regular sixteen-year old hiding underneath all of that anger.

Zuko leads the way into a huge indoor courtyard – an enormous, open room with a row of windows on the right, giving an excellent view of the canyon the Western Air Temple was carved into. In the middle of the room stands a huge pool of crystalline water, and in the middle of the pool is a fountain of an Air Sister sitting in the lotus position. Water flows out from the tips of her fingers, and Sokka can't keep his jaw from dropping. It's beautiful. It's calming. It is the perfect place to take a nap.

"I didn't know your father was the chief," says Zuko quietly. He walks towards the fountain pool, considers it a moment, then sits on the wide brim of it, sheathing his twin swords in one graceful sweep. "I haven't really gotten a chance to speak with him since we've been back from the Boiling Rock."

Sokka sits down, too, but he opts for the ground instead of the fountain. More space for sprawling out and kicking off your boots. Sokka's feet are _killing_ him. "Yeah," he replies once his toes are free from the leather of his boots. "He's the chief of the entire Southern Water Tribe."

Zuko nods, and maybe the firebender thinks about saying something about how there isn't much left of the Southern Water Tribe, but he doesn't. And for that, Sokka is grateful.

And apparently, Zuko's feet hurt, too, because he begins undoing the straps that hold his boots closed. In a moment, the firebender's feet are free and his toes are wiggling and he's leaning his head back with a satisfied sigh. "Well, if the Fire Nation didn't see the Water Tribes as a bunch of backwater savages – no offense – then yeah, I guess you'd be noble enough."

"Oh, really?" Sokka grins. He leans back on the palms of his hands, and the stone feels cool beneath his fingertips. "So you _could_ date me, then. You could make me your Fire Lord husband. Fire Man?"

Zuko rolls his eyes and spins around, so his back is facing Sokka and his front is facing the fountain. Zuko takes a moment then, gingerly, sticks one foot into the water. The firebender lets out an "aahhh," and adds his other foot, too.

"That's the other problem," Zuko calls over his shoulder, "you're a guy. So I couldn't date you, let alone _marry_ you."

The fountain looks infinitely more appealing now that part of Zuko is in it, so Sokka crawls towards it. It takes him a moment to climb up on the edge, but he does – and now there's only a foot or so of space between the two boys as Sokka sinks his feet into the water. "So not only is the Fire Nation filled with pompous, status-obsessed jerkbenders, but they're also a bunch of prudes."

Zuko's eyebrows furrow together and he turns towards Sokka. The water ripples between them. "What do you mean?"

"By what?" Sokka wiggles his toes and spirits, the cold water feels good on his sore feet.

Zuko's frown deepens, and now his face is all scrunched up in that sourpuss expression of his, and okay, Sokka admits it – it is kind of cute. "So you're saying that it's… _acceptable_ for two men to marry in the Southern Water Tribe?"

Sokka shrugs. "Sure, why not? Some women marry each other, too. A lot of them did recently, since all the men went away to war."

"But that's, that's…" Zuko struggles with the words. Clearly, the guy needs to get out of the palace more. Well, that's probably why he's here. To broaden his very, very small horizons. "That's _indecent_," he finally finishes, shoulders slumping in defeat.

"No it's not," Sokka laughs, kicking water at the firebender. Zuko makes a noise like 'augh,' and tries to block it from soaking his clothes. He fails, of course. Miserably. "It's _natural_," Sokka goes on. "In our tribe, the men are the hunters, and when the men go off on the hunts, they spend a lot of time with other men, since the women are all back home taking care of the village. So if we're with other men all the time, it's not weird if we start to like another hunter. It just happens. Same for the women who spend all their time with each other."

Zuko looks like he's eaten something sour. "But… that's not right. It's unnatural."

"Why?" Sokka laughs. "Is there a rule that says you can only love certain people?"

Zuko frowns. "Well, I guess there isn't a rule… but there's _laws_ in the Fire Nation. Fire Nation law clearly states that you have to marry someone of the opposite sex from equal or similar standing."

"That's boring."

"It's the _law_."

Sokka pulls his feet out from the water so he can lie down on the curve of the fountain. "Then you should become Fire Lord and _change_ the law. That's what the Fire Lord does, right? He says, 'burn,' and everyone asks, 'how hot?'"

"It's not that simple," Zuko mutters. "Besides, who knows if I'll even become Fire Lord? If we don't defeat my father, then…"

A silence falls between them, too heavy to lift with comedic antics or jokes. Sokka sighs and closes his eyes, and focuses on the sounds that echo in the vast room: Zuko's breathing, quiet and slow, the sound of water trickling through the fountain, a gentle breeze whistling through the canyon.

Well, that's incredibly depressing. Enough of that.

"So…" Sokka says, "pretend you _are_ the Fire Lord. Right now. You're Fire Lord Zuko. _Would_ you change the law so a man can marry another man?"

He can't see much of Zuko's face, but he sees enough to spot the brow furrowing, the worry lines creasing. "I don't know."

"That's not an answer," replies Sokka, exasperated. "Would you, or wouldn't you?"

Zuko swallows. "I guess… I guess I would. So all my citizens could marry who they want to, and be happy."

"Great!" Sokka cheers, sitting up so fast his head spins for a moment. "Okay, so you're Fire Lord, and you can marry whoever you want. Mai, or Ty Lee, or some other chick, or even a guy. Who are you gonna marry?"

Zuko laughs, but it's a nervous laugh, thin and short. "I don't know. Even if I _was_ going to marry a guy, he'd still have to be a noble. I don't think I could convince the council to let me marry a commoner. I've already convinced them to let men marry other men. They're probably not too happy with me for breaking hundreds of years of tradition."

Sokka rolls his eyes. "Okay, so you can marry a _noble_ guy. Who would you choose?"

Zuko squirms in his seat – or at least, he squirms as much as a rigid Fire Nation prince can squirm. This is kind of fun, actually, Sokka thinks with a grin. He likes this new game. He'll call it, 'How Uncomfortable Can You Make the Fire Nation Prince?' He should play it more. He should play it with _Toph,_ is what he should do.

"I've never thought about marrying a man," Zuko chokes at last. "So I don't know. All the noblemen I know are old, or my father's soldiers. I don't want to marry any of them. So I can't think of any one, okay?"

"Really," Sokka deadpans. "You can't think of _anyone_?"

"No."

"You can't think of a _single_ guy of noble standing? A single, handsome guy who _isn't_ old and _isn't_ a Fire Nation soldier?"

"No."

"A single, young, debonair kind of guy who comes up with great plans and amazing inventions all the time?"

"No. Sokka, what are you talking abo-"

"You're an idiot," Sokka sighs, cutting him off. "You would make a terrible Fire Lord. We don't need another moron ruling the world's angriest nation of dumbasses."

A snarl forms on Zuko's face – and that's a look Sokka's more familiar with. Eyes flashing hot, teeth bared, lip curled – it's almost like old times again. If Zuko started shooting fire blasts at him, it would be _exactly_ like old times again. But Zuko doesn't throw fire around when he's angry anymore. Now he just stomps around and yells a lot, so before the firebender can get any words out, any insults about how Sokka's a peasant and the Water Tribe is a bunch of peasant scum, Sokka kisses him. And he kisses him _hard_. Instantly, the rage melts off the prince's face and is replaced with a look that can only be described as 'ohholyshit, whatthefuckisgoingon.' It is, by all accounts, extremely satisfying.

It's with great reluctance that Sokka finally pulls away. He's pretty sure firebenders need to breathe, after all, and he's also pretty sure that Zuko _wasn't_. In fact, Zuko still looks a little dazed and not all there, like Sokka just blew his mind with his magic Water Tribe tongue.

Sokka sighs, but he does it with a smile. "You're lucky you're cute when you're being stupid, you know that?" Zuko opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again, like he wants to talk but doesn't remember how. Sokka laughs. "Hello?" he calls, tugging on the firebender's ear, "anyone still home in there?"

And just like that, Zuko snaps to. He goes from dazed and starry-eyed to frowning, eyes hardened, mouth set – angry-looking. Whoops. Maybe Sokka went too fast. Maybe Zuko was the flowers and candy type of guy. You know, the kind of person who needs a little bit of romancing before they get down to the good stuff. Sokka makes a mental note to bring Zuko flowers next time he tries to make out with the firebender.

Sokka prepares himself for the yelling. Zuko was always good at yelling. The dude could yell _fire_, after all, and if that wasn't the ultimate form of yelling, then Sokka didn't even want to know what was. So Sokka winces and pulls away, his hands ready at a moment's notice to cover and protect his very sensitive ear drums, and – oh. _Oh_.

Zuko's kissing Sokka now. Not the other way around. Not Sokka surprise attacking Zuko with a kiss and letting it linger on for as long as Zuko was dumbfounded. No, now this time, Zuko is kissing Sokka. Zuko. Kissing _Sokka_. Sokka would get all weak in the knees if he wasn't already sitting.

And as it turns out, Zuko's a pretty good kisser. He's unabashed and forceful, almost violent, like Fire Princes have to kiss as if there is a winner and a loser, and there's no honor in losing, ever. Which is just as well with Sokka, who doesn't mind taking the fall this time around. And how could he mind with Zuko being all _Zuko_ about the kiss? All prideful and stubborn. He's probably thinking, "Well, if I'm going to kiss another guy, then I'll be the best fucking kiss that guy's ever had." Sokka loves it. Zuko is so cute when he's being proud.

As the kissing gets harder, more frantic, Zuko pushes Sokka down against the fountain and drives his hips down against Sokka's, hard.

Okay. Okay. So maybe Zuko's not a flowers and candy type of guy. Maybe Zuko is, in fact, a hormone-crazed teenager with anger issues and a repressed sex drive from years and years of stiff upbringing. Yeah, Sokka thinks as Zuko grinds into him again – Zuko is definitely _not_ a flowers type of guy.

Sokka breaks the kiss and Zuko _gasps_, and holy crap, that is, without a doubt, the sexiest sound he's ever heard. With renewed vigor, Sokka leans up and grabs the back of Zuko's head to bring the firebender's face to his again. This time he catches Zuko's lower lip with his teeth, and he bites down, not too hard, just hard enough, sucking and licking at it like it's the best thing he's ever tasted. Which it is, really. And this time Zuko _whimpers_.

Yep. Okay. That settles it. Firebenders make the best noises. Sokka's brain explodes with pleasure as Zuko keeps whimpering against his mouth.

"Does this mean you've changed your mind?" Sokka chokes when Zuko finally pries his mouth free.

Zuko growls, but it doesn't sound so angry, more like _frustrated_ – frustrated that Sokka is wasting his mouth on things as unhelpful as talking. "About what?"

Sokka grins and curls his fingers into Zuko's hair, so unbelievably soft and dark, and holds the firebender close. "About two men being together being _indecent_," Sokka teases, leaning up to lick Zuko's lips.

Zuko laughs breathlessly, pulling away from Sokka's lips to lean his forehead against Sokka's shoulder. They stay like that for a moment, Zuko hiding a bashful grin against Sokka's skin and clothing. "I haven't decided yet," the prince says at last, and his cheeks flush the most adorable shade of pink as he speaks. Generally, Sokka tries to avoid using words like 'adorable,' but he can't help it. It's _Zuko_.

"Well, it isn't," Sokka grins, cradling Zuko's head in the crook of his arm.

Zuko's eyes flash bright and hard and determined, and he bares his teeth in a smile like a hungry polar bear-dog closing in on a kill. "Convince me," he hisses, teeth flashing like daggers.

Oh. _Oh, fuck._ If Sokka hadn't been in love before, then – well – he definitely was now.


End file.
